How many times in 2018 did TFL request an individual Uber drivers “ride” data from Uber and if requested was it given and in what timeframe?

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TfL Ref: FOI-2936-1819

Thank you for your email received on 5 February asking about information provided by private hire operators.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our Information Access Policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require. You asked:

How many times in 2018 did TFL request an individual Uber drivers “ride” data from Uber and if requested was it given and in what timeframe?

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.

We have estimated that it would considerably exceed the cost limit to provide a response to your current request. That’s because there is no central record of these requests. Where we have found it necessary to request this type of information from any of our approximately 2,200 licensed operators, we have not recorded it in one place. Therefore we would have to manually locate and extract the requests from various places (files, email inboxes etc) and then record them onto a spreadsheet and calculate the time taken to respond. This would be a burdensome task.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by Transport for London. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You might also consider limiting your request to a shorter period of time, geographical area or specific departments of TfL.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.

Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Eva Hextall

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

How many times in 2018 did TFL request an individual Uber drivers “ride” data from Uber and if requested was it given and in what timeframe?

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